Excitement was at an all time high during the Tyranid/Space Wolves refresh a few months ago leading into the release of the sixth edition rule book. Now that GW has recently announced the sixth edition starter set and made them available for advanced order, the excitement continues. GW has done a good job this year rolling out new product in a consistent fashion, which is great for fans but bad on the wallet.

The sixth edition boxed set continues GW’s high quality starter set offering.

For the first time, Chaos Space Marines will be the featured foe (Dark Eldar, Orks, and Tyranids fought against the Space Marines in previous sets.)

Instead of Ultramarines, the Dark Angels take on the role of protagonist. The major unit changes are SM bikers instead of a Dreadnought, the addition of an SM Librarian, and a Company Master instead of a SM Captain. Other notable changes are the updated Terminator units, which look fantastic. The Tactical Squad of Space Marines underwent minor revisions in markings to make them Dark Angels.

The new Terminator squad (Deathwings) look incredible and are a large visual upgrade from the previous Terminator squad offered in the Black Reach set.

For the Chaos Space Marines, some changes were made to the unit archetypes. Some changes include: Heavy support instead of fast attack with the new Helbrute instead of Choppas and Elites are replaced by Troops with the Chosen taking over for the Nobs. The Cultists take over duties previously filled by the Shoota Boyz. One of the best looking models of the bunch is the included Chaos Lord.

The new Chaos Lord is my personal favorite of the bunch.

Along with the 48 models included in the set, there are also the standard array of items such as an abridged soft cover rule book, painting and modeling guide, a reference sheet, dice, templates, scenario booklet, and a roster sheet. The box is very nice looking as well.

Instead of the normal Dreadnought, GW went all out on a Helbrute for the Chaos Space Marines.

If you get in early, you could opt to go for the Limited Edition version which contains everything from the normal version plus an extra limited edition Chaplain model. The limited edition version costs eight dollars more and is already sold out on the GW website.

For eight dollars more, and only for a limited time, GW is offering an exclusion Chaplain model.

All told, the new boxed set offers a great value as usual. It is too bad that we’ve hit the 100 USD mark for the starter set though as it puts this great entry into the Warhammer 40K universe well out of reach for a lot of parents, teens, or impulse buyers. Most online retailers offer 20-25% off the retail price, which makes it a much more reasonable 75 USD, so be sure to check around if you are interested in starting out with this set.

We may get a boxed set in soon to check it out, but we’ve already got a lot of features planned for the next month or so. Be sure to check back often!